The present application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2021-104453 filed on Jun. 23, 2021, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The presently disclosed subject matter relates to a connector device and a wire harness manufacturing method.
A general wire harness mounted on a vehicle and the like includes a large number of bundled and integrated electric wires and has a complicated shape. A connector for connecting a predetermined device is usually attached to end portions of the electric wires. When the wire harness is manufactured, sheathes at the end portions of the electric wires each sheathed with an insulator such as a resin are peeled off to expose core wires, and metal terminals are fixed to the end portions of electric wires. A terminal usually uses a crimping terminal, and front-end portions where the core wires of the electric wires are exposed, as well as positions where the core wires are covered, are crimped to the terminal by crimping. Then, the metal terminal crimped to the electric wires is inserted into and fixed to a predetermined cavity formed in a connector housing that is a body of a connector.
Meanwhile, when electric wires whose core wires are made of aluminum are crimped and fixed to the terminals, it is necessary to prevent corrosion from occurring at crimping positions. Therefore, in a wire harness or the like, a corrosion-proof operation is subjected to the crimping portions of the core wires by a method such as applying a predetermined corrosion-proof material.
For example, in related art, there is disclosed a technique for improving corrosion-proof performance of an electric wire connection portion between an electric wire conductor of an insulated electric wire and a terminal fitting in a sheathed electric wire equipped with a terminal and a wire harness. Specifically, the sheathed electric wire equipped with the terminal is configured such that the connection portion between the electric wire conductor of the sheathed electric wire and the terminal fitting is coated with a coating film made of a corrosion-proof agent, a bottom surface of a barrel of the terminal fitting is exposed to the outside without being coated with the corrosion-proof agent, and an electric wire side end surface of the barrel is exposed to the outside without being coated with the coating film made of the corrosion-proof agent (for example, see JP2014-165158A).
In addition, another related art discloses a technique for enabling use of a connector in related art while preventing corrosion at a connection portion between an electric wire and a crimping terminal for a long period of time in a terminal-equipped electric wire. The terminal-equipped electric wire includes a corrosion-proof material integrally formed around the connection portion between a conductor of the electric wire and the crimping terminal and around an electric wire sheathed material (for example, see JP2014-26795A).
Meanwhile, in a wire harness for a vehicle, high reliability related to conduction between an electric wire and a terminal is required. Therefore, in a manufacturing process of the wire harness, a crimped state is inspected after the crimping terminal is crimped and fixed to the electric wire. Specifically, it is inspected whether a shape of a crimped portion, a positional relationship between an exposed core wire and the crimped portion, and the like are in a state of satisfying prescribed conditions. Thereafter, when a type of the core wire of the electric wire is aluminum, a corrosion-proof material is applied to the crimped portion. Further, it is inspected whether the corrosion-proof material is applied as specified. After all the above operations are completed, the terminal connected to the electric wire is inserted into and fixed to a cavity of a connector housing.
In a manufacturing process of a wire harness, it is desired that various wire harnesses having different types and specifications can be efficiently manufactured using a common manufacturing facility. However, for example, when the core wire of the electric wire is made of copper or aluminum, it may be necessary to change the type of the terminal. Further, when the type of the core wire of the electric wire is different, presence or absence of the corrosion-proof operation and the inspection thereof is different, and thus the process becomes complicated, and it is difficult to automate the manufacturing using the common manufacturing facility.
When the wire harness is manufactured, the entire manufacturing process may be divided into, for example, a pre-process and a post-process, and the pre-process and the post-process may be performed in separate factories. In addition, a process which is not common to all the wire harnesses, such as the corrosion-proof operation and the inspection process thereof, is preferably performed in the post-process as much as possible so as to cope with a specification change of the wire harness to be manufactured. However, in a case of a manufacturing procedure in the related art, the corrosion-proof operation and the inspection thereof need to be performed in the pre-process.
The presently disclosed subject matter provides a connector device and a wire harness manufacturing method capable of making a terminal and a manufacturing facility common to different types of electric wire core wires and the like and facilitating automation of manufacturing.
According to an illustrative aspect of the presently disclosed subject matter, a connector device includes a connector housing having a terminal accommodating chamber, a terminal configured to be accommodated in the terminal accommodating chamber, an electric wire configured to be connected to the terminal, a corrosion-proof material to be disposed at a position facing the terminal accommodated in the terminal accommodating chamber and a corrosion-proof target portion of the electric wire, and a corrosion-proof material support portion retaining the corrosion-proof material above the connector housing such that the corrosion-proof material can be moved toward the corrosion-proof target portion. A melting point of the corrosion-proof material is set to be lower than a melting point of a material forming the connector housing, and the corrosion-proof material is configured to be melted and then cured while covering the corrosion-proof target portion. According to another illustrative aspect of the presently disclosed subject matter, a wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing a wire harness including a connector housing having a terminal accommodating chamber, a terminal configured to be accommodated in the terminal accommodating chamber, and an electric wire configured to be connected to the terminal is provided. The wire harness manufacturing method includes disposing the terminal in the terminal accommodating chamber and fixing the terminal to the terminal accommodating chamber, fixing the electric wire to the terminal by physically and electrically connecting the electric wire to the terminal, bringing a corrosion-proof material close to a corrosion-proof target portion including a connection portion at which the terminal and the electric wire are connected to each other and melting and then curing the corrosion-proof material to perform a corrosion-proof operation to the corrosion-proof target portion.
Other aspects and advantages of the presently disclosed subject matter will be apparent from the following description, the drawings and the claims.
A specific embodiment according to the presently disclosed subject matter will be described below with reference to the drawings.
As shown in
The connector housing 10 shown in
In the example of
As shown in
In addition, the connector device 1 includes a cover 11 that can be fitted to the connector housing 10. The cover 11 has a shape matching the upper opening portion 10c of the connector housing 10. Therefore, by fitting the cover 11 to the upper opening portion 10c from above as shown in
The cover 11 holds a corrosion-proof material 12 in a corrosion-proof material holding portion 11a in advance. The corrosion-proof material holding portion 11a holds the corrosion-proof material 12 in a manner in which when a force is applied to the corrosion-proof material 12 from above, the corrosion-proof material 12 can move downward with respect to the cover 11.
The corrosion-proof material 12 is held at a position corresponding to each position of the five cavities 10b facing the cover 11. The corrosion-proof material 12 is solid at a room temperature, melts at a temperature equal to or higher than a predetermined melting point, and is cured when the temperature gets low enough again. The melting point of the corrosion-proof material 12 is set to be sufficiently lower than that of the connector housing 10.
As shown in
The electric wire coupling portion 13b of the metal terminal 13 is a metal plate having a flat plate shape or a curved surface shape that is capable of coming into contact with a front-end region of the sheathed electric wire 14, and is in a region on a rear side of the metal terminal 13 as shown in
The sheathed electric wire 14 includes an electric wire core wire 14a and an insulating sheath 14b made of resin or the like that covers the electric wire core wire 14a. When the sheathed electric wire 14 is to be attached to the metal terminal 13, the insulating sheath 14b at a front-end portion of the sheathed electric wire 14 is peeled off, and the electric wire core wire 14a is exposed as shown in
Then, as shown in
In the present embodiment, the metal terminals 13 are disposed in advance at positions corresponding to the respective cavities 10b of the connector housing 10. Therefore, in a state where the upper opening portion 10c is opened as shown in
For example, when a laser welding machine equipped with a galvano scanner is used, it is easy to perform the welding by sequentially positioning a laser beam at each of the electric wire coupling portions 13b of the plurality of metal terminals 13 accommodated in the cavities 10b of the connector housing 10.
In a case where a crimping terminal is used instead of the metal terminal 13 as in a general connector, since a crimping operation cannot be performed or is difficult to be performed inside the connector housing, it is necessary to crimp an electric wire to the crimping terminal and then insert the electric wire into the cavity of the connector housing.
In contrast, in the present embodiment, since it is assumed that the metal terminals 13 and the sheathed electric wires 14 are fixed by the laser welding using the upper opening portion 10c, the metal terminals 13 can be mounted in the connector housing 10 in advance, and the sheathed electric wires 14 can be inserted into the cavities 10b and welded later.
When the sheathed electric wires 14 are respectively inserted into the five cavities 10b of the connector housing 10, the electric wire coupling portions 13b and the electric wire core wires 14a in the respective cavities 10b are subjected to the laser welding, and the cover 11 is attached to the connector housing 10 and the upper opening portion 10c is closed, the connector device 1 is brought into a state shown in
When a material of the electric wire core wire 14a of the sheathed electric wire 14 connected to the metal terminal 13 is aluminum, the corrosion-proof operation is required to prevent corrosion of a connection portion. In addition, the corrosion-proof operation needs to be performed after the laser welding of the connection portion between the electric wire coupling portion 13b and the electric wire core wire 14a is completed.
When the material of the electric wire core wire 14a is copper, the corrosion-proof operation can be omitted. In addition, when a plurality of sheathed electric wires 14 having different types of electric wires are connected to one connector in a mixed state, the corrosion-proof operation may be selectively performed only on the sheathed electric wire 14 in which the material of the electric wire core wire 14a is aluminum.
In addition, in the present embodiment, the metal terminal 13 is formed of a material that can be commonly used for connection with both the sheathed electric wires 14 respectively made of aluminum and copper so as to be compatible with both the sheathed electric wires 14 respectively made of aluminum and copper in a common manufacturing process.
In the state shown in
In the state shown in
When the corrosion-proof material 12 is melted by being heated, as shown in
First, in step S11, all the metal terminals 13 to be attached to the connector are incorporated into the respective cavities 10b in the connector housing 10. When the connector housing 10 to which the metal terminals 13 are attached in advance can be used as a component, this step is unnecessary.
Next, the sheathed electric wire 14 in which the insulating sheath 14b is peeled off so that the electric wire core wire 14a at the front end portion is exposed is prepared in advance, and the sheathed electric wire 14 is inserted into a portion of each cavity 10b of the connector housing 10 from the electric wire inserting direction Az1. Then, the electric wire coupling portion 13b of the metal terminal 13 and the electric wire core wire 14a in each cavity 10b are aligned to be overlapped with each other, and a portion to be joint is irradiated with a laser beam from the upper opening portion 10c to be subjected to the laser welding and fixed (S12).
Next, the cover 11 is attached to the upper opening portion 10c of the connector housing 10 (S13). As a result, the state shown in
Next, the materials of the electric wire core wires of the sheathed electric wires 14 mounted at respective cavity positions of the connector housing 10 are identified (S14). For example, the core wire material of the sheathed electric wire 14 at each cavity position for each connector can be identified based on information indicating a manufacturing specification of a wire harness to be manufactured. When the material is aluminum, the procedure proceeds from S14 to S15, and when the material is copper, the procedure proceeds to S18.
Next, in S15, a force is applied from above the corrosion-proof material holding portion 11a in the cover 11 in an upper portion of the corresponding cavity 10b, and the corrosion-proof material 12 is pushed into the cavity 10b that needs to be subjected to the corrosion-proof operation as shown in
Next, the corrosion-proof material 12 pushed into each cavity 10b is heated for, for example, a certain period of time to melt the corrosion-proof material 12 (S16). As a result, the melted corrosion-proof material 12 flows down to form a sheath so as to sheath a surface of the electric wire core wire 14a and the like of the connection portion for each cavity 10b as shown in
The processes of S14 to S17 are performed on all the sheathed electric wires 14 connected to the same connector housing 10. When the processes performed on all the sheathed electric wires 14 are completed, the procedure proceeds from S17 to S18, and inspection of a portion subjected to the corrosion-proof operation is performed. For example, an operator performs visual inspection on the corrosion-proof material holding portion 11a, and inspects whether the sheath of the corrosion-proof material 12 is formed in a predetermined state at a portion where the corrosion-proof operation is necessary.
Incidentally, the processing procedure shown in
On the other hand, in a case where the metal terminals 13 and the sheathed electric wires 14 are connected to each other before the metal terminals 13 are inserted into the connector housing 10 as in a general manufacturing process, it is necessary to perform the corrosion-proof operation and the inspection thereof in accordance with the type of the electric wire earlier during the pre-process PR1, and thus a degree of freedom in changing a process of manufacturing the wire harness is reduced. That is, by manufacturing the connector device 1 having the configuration shown in
In the connector device 1 described above, since the corrosion-proof material 12 is held by the corrosion-proof material holding portion 11a of the cover 11 in advance, the connector housing 10, the cover 11, and the metal terminals 13 can be used as a common component regardless of whether the core wire material of the sheathed electric wire 14 to be attached to the connector is aluminum or copper. In addition, when the material of the sheathed electric wire 14 is aluminum, it is not necessary to separately prepare the corrosion-proof material as a special component.
In addition, since the processing of the laser welding and the corrosion-proof operation can be performed by using the portion of the upper opening portion 10c formed in the connector housing 10, the connection between the metal terminals 13 and the sheathed electric wires 14 and the corrosion-proof manufacturing process can be performed in a state where the metal terminals 13 are disposed in the cavities 10b of the connector housing 10. Therefore, automation of the manufacturing process is facilitated. In addition, the processing of the corrosion-proof operation can be performed in the post-process PR2.
According to an aspect of the embodiments described above, a connector device (1) includes a connector housing (10) having a terminal accommodating chamber (for example, cavity 10b, a terminal (for example, metal terminal 13) configured to be accommodated in the terminal accommodating chamber (10b), an electric wire (for example, sheathed electric wire 14) configured to be connected to the terminal, a corrosion-proof material (for example, corrosion-proof material 12) to be disposed at a position facing the terminal accommodated in the terminal accommodating chamber and a corrosion-proof target portion of the electric wire, and a corrosion-proof material support portion (for example, corrosion-proof material holding portion 11a) retaining the corrosion-proof material above the connector housing such that the corrosion-proof material can be moved toward the corrosion-proof target portion. A melting point of the corrosion-proof material is set to be lower than a melting point of a material forming the connector housing, and the corrosion-proof material is configured to be melted and then cured while covering the corrosion-proof target portion.
According to the connector device having the above-described configuration, the corrosion-proof material is retained on the connector housing via the corrosion-proof material support portion. Therefore, after the terminal and the electric wire are accommodated in the terminal accommodating chamber inside the connector housing, the corrosion-proof operation can be performed by melting the corrosion-proof material as a post-process. In addition, since the corrosion-proof material support portion supports the corrosion-proof material in advance in the state in which the corrosion-proof material can be moved in the direction approaching the corrosion-proof target portion, it is not necessary to separately prepare the corrosion-proof material when the corrosion-proof operation is necessary. In addition, when the corrosion-proof operation is unnecessary, the corrosion-proof material does not affect a connection portion between the terminal and the electric wire. Therefore, even when a type of a core wire of the electric wire to be attached is aluminum or copper, a common component can be used as the corrosion-proof material support portion. In addition, since the melting point of the corrosion-proof material is set to be lower than the melting point of the material of the connector housing, the corrosion-proof operation can be performed only by heating the corrosion-proof material to melt the corrosion-proof material and to form a sheath without greatly affecting the connector housing.
The corrosion-proof material may be melted after the corrosion-proof material moves to a position close to the corrosion-proof target portion while being retained by the corrosion-proof material support portion.
With this configuration, since the corrosion-proof material is melted in a state of being close to the corrosion-proof target portion, the corrosion-proof target portion can be reliably covered.
The connector device may further include a cover member (for example, cover 11) configured to be engaged with the connector housing (10) and to cover an opening (for example, upper opening portion 10c) of the connector housing (10), the opening being formed at a position corresponding to the terminal accommodating chamber (10b). The opening (10c) and the cover member (11) may be disposed at positions facing the corrosion-proof target portion. The corrosion-proof material support portion (11a) may be provided in the cover member (11).
With this configuration, before the cover member is attached, a portion of the terminal accommodating chamber of the connector housing is exposed to the outside via the opening portion. Therefore, for example, when a laser welding machine is used, the material inside the terminal accommodating chamber can be welded from the outside of the connector housing via the opening portion. That is, after the terminal and the electric wire are accommodated in the terminal accommodating chamber inside the connector housing, an operation for joining the terminal and the electric wire can be performed. In addition, by attaching the cover member to the connector housing, it is easy to close the opening portion and protect a joint portion of the terminal and the electric wire in the terminal accommodating chamber.
The opening may be formed at a position facing the corrosion-proof target portion in a direction orthogonal to a longitudinal direction (for example, electric wire inserting direction Az1) of the terminal and the electric wire.
With this configuration, since the opening portion is formed at the position where a component of the corrosion-proof target portion is easily processed, an operation of processing the internal component from the outside of the connector housing, that is, an operation such as the welding becomes easy.
The terminal accommodating chamber (10b) may be a plurality of terminal accommodating chambers. The opening of the connector housing may be formed over the plurality of terminal accommodating chambers, and the cover member may cover an entirety of the plurality of terminal accommodating chambers.
With this configuration, even when the number of terminals and electric wires to be accommodated in the connector housing is large, it is possible to cover the entire opening portion only by preparing one cover member, and it is possible to avoid an increase in the number of components of the connector and an increase in the number of operation steps when assembling the components.
According to another aspect of the embodiments described above, a wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing a wire harness including a connector housing (10) having a terminal accommodating chamber, a terminal (for example, metal terminal 13) configured to be accommodated in the terminal accommodating chamber, and an electric wire (for example, sheathed electric wire 14) configured to be connected to the terminal is provided. The wire harness manufacturing method includes disposing the terminal in the terminal accommodating chamber and fixing the terminal to the terminal accommodating chamber (S11), fixing the electric wire to the terminal by physically and electrically connecting the electric wire to the terminal (S12), bringing a corrosion-proof material close to a corrosion-proof target portion including a connection portion at which the terminal and the electric wire are connected to each other (S15) and melting and then curing the corrosion-proof material to perform a corrosion-proof operation to the corrosion-proof target portion (S16).
With this configuration, in a case where it is necessary to perform the corrosion-proof operation on the connection portion between the terminal and the electric wire, the corrosion-proof operation can be performed in a post-process. That is, since it is not necessary to perform the corrosion-proof operation before inserting the electric wire into the connector housing, an order of the manufacturing processes can be easily optimized as necessary. Therefore, for example, in a case where the manufacturing process of the wire harness is divided into a pre-process and the post-process, and manufacturing of the pre-process and manufacturing of the post-process are performed in different factories, it is possible to optimize allocation of manufacturing facilities installed for each factory and functions.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2021-104453 | Jun 2021 | JP | national |